The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (read novel full .txt) 📕

Four of the Panthers struck relatively unopposed with horrendous savagery, knocking down their victims and mauling them with their claws, and one even managed to snap down on one of the Raiders’ necks and tear out their throat with a ferocious growl at the same time.  The other three that were being mauled fought back and managed to get in a glancing stab or two before they succumbed to their injuries, but overall the dying Raiders didn’t do much damage to the deadly black cats.

The Raiders fought back with equal violence, as the three surviving Raiders picked themselves up with amazing speed, quickly dispatched the thoroughly wounded Panther before it could strike, and then headed towards the four Panthers that had succeeded in killing their group mates.  Now that they were prepared, and the element of surprise had been used – rather effectively – the following fight was a bit more evenly matched.

Two of the Panthers pounced on a single Raider, and though one was stabbed through the heart and killed, the other creature managed to lock its jaws around the Brigand’s head and twisted it; Tacca could hear some wet-sounding pops coming from the Raider as his neck was broken in multiple places.  Once that was done, the surviving Panther joined its companions – which hadn’t fared as well.

Marvus – the one that managed to sniff out the treasure in Darlene’s Core Room even from outside the dungeon entrance – got a lucky strike into the Panther aiming for him, stabbing deep into its neck; blood squirted from the wound in a massive spray, but before it got too weak the Panther was able to shred his dark leather jerkin and wound him – though how badly, Tacca couldn’t tell from her position near the ceiling.

The supposed leader of the Raiders was the other still standing, though he got knocked down when the Panther pounced on him.  A stab to its gut wounded the creature horribly, but it was still able to swipe a few times at the Brigand’s chest, tearing through the leather like it was thin paper; it didn’t last long, however, as the leader – in a great show of strength – tossed the Panther, sword and all, away from him.

That was when Darlene’s defender that had snapped the neck of the other Raider arrived in another pounce, landing on the unbalanced and unsuspecting leader and knocking him down again as he tried to get up.  A single swipe of a sharp claw-tipped paw was all that it managed to get off before a dagger was shoved into the eye of the Panther and it collapsed on top of the Brigand, before disappearing.

That one swipe, however, was enough to do him in – because it was straight across his throat.  The Raider held a hand up to his mortal wound, trying to stem the loss of blood, while also trying to reach a pouch on his waist.  Fumbling fingers managed to reach inside and grasp what Tacca immediately identified as a healing potion; if he managed to get the relatively expensive potion to his lips, his neck wound would start to heal, and he might even fully recover.

Meanwhile the Panther that had been stabbed through the gut managed to get up and unsteadily make its way back to the leader – now with the sword completely through its back.  It stumbled into the Raider as it collapsed in death, knocking his arm as he tried to bring the glass potion to his mouth to uncork the stopper and the healing potion was knocked from his hand.  It went rolling away – miraculously not breaking – only to be stopped underfoot by Marvus.

“Oh, was this yours?  You were holding back on us, but I guess I can forgive hiding such a valuable item…especially as you’re sharing it with me.  That’s very generous of you,” the upright and obviously only slightly wounded Raider said.  He picked up the dark-red-colored healing potion and uncorked it, before drinking it down immediately.

The leader could only look with wild eyes, and gurgles came from his mouth as he tried to speak.  “What was that?  You wanted to tell me something?” Marvus said as he stretched his chest a little as the wounds he had endured healed themselves rather quickly.  “Oh, I know – you wanted to ask me to end your suffering.  You’re in luck; since you were so generous with me, I guess I can return the favor.”

Tacca had to turn away as Marvus quickly stabbed the horrifically bleeding man through the heart, which was made easier from the shredded leather caused by Panther claws.  She wasn’t the bit least squeamish when dungeon creatures killed Raiders but seeing them kill each other was…wrong, somehow.

“I don’t have any Dungeon Force left to create any more Panthers!  Do you think he’ll leave now rather than risk dying the further he goes in?” Darlene asked in her panicked state again.  The defense had been close, but unfortunately was just short of complete success, and Tacca had no more ideas of what to do in such a short time; the fight had lasted less than a minute, though another minute was used up as the Raider healed himself and killed his groupmate.

“I don’t know, it’s possible—” She was proven wrong as Marvus continued moving through the room and down into the next tunnel, where he eventually came to the Core Room.

“I knew it!  Look at all of this treasure…but why is there still a Dungeon Core here?” he asked as soon as he walked into the room.  Looking around with his greedy eyes, his mouth fell as he took it all in.  “There’s no way I’m going to be able to carry even a fraction of this in just a single